Very few true jazz musicians can draw from a catalog of greatest hits, and the alto (and sometime soprano) saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (1928-1975) was one of them. Like Art Blakey, Horace Silver, and Jimmy Smith, Adderley was a kingpin of the "soul-jazz" movement of the late Fifties and early Sixties, when the original recordings of most of the material herein were made. The idea behind Phenix was to recast these Adderley signature tunes, via electric keyboards and synthesizers, funk and Latin rhythms, and Airto Moreira's array of percussion colorations. This project was also highlighted by three happy reunions, as Cannonball and his cornetist-brother Nat welcomed back Sam Jones and Louis Hayes, their outstanding bass-drums team of the Sixties; George Duke, the group's versatile keyboardist from earlier in the Seventies; and Orrin Keepnews, who produced the classic series of Adderley albums for Riverside--which, in effect, lit the fire for Phenix.